Fallen Enchantress 0.85 patch (released 2/23/2012)
Features:
+ Imbuing removed from the game. Champions start with the ability to cast
+ Improved performance
+ Added tactical versions of the Burning Blade and Stoneskin spells
+ Reprisal is an ability high level defenders can use to protect a unit, giving it a counterattack and increasing its defense by 1 each time it is attacked
+ Added the Tower of the Witch-Queen, it provides +1 Air and Water power and is required to build the Forge of the Overlord
+ Added the Tower of the sword, it provides +1 Earth and Water power and is required to build the Forge of the Overlord
+ Added the Tower of the Paders, it provides +1 Air and Fire power and is required to build the Forge of the Overlord
+ Added the Forge of the Overlord, it provides +1 Earth and Fire power and is require to cast the Spell of Making
+ Added Waerloga the Dragonlord, though he remains trapped in the Pit of Lost Voices (watch for future updates on this)
+ New Choose Sovereign Screen
+ New Kingdom report screen (displays victory condition information)
+ Tile the player is mousing over is highlighted on the world map
+ Your units path is now displayed
+ The game now ends at 1000 turns (modified by the game pace). Players have the option to continue playing but their score wont be recorded after this point.
+ Caravans as units are removed (they can be auto-created when you form a Trade treaty with another player).
+ Roads are automatically created between your cities when the appropriate techs are know. The roads don't give economic benefits (the techs do though)
+ Techs can unlock automatic roads to your outposts
+ Tactical battle progression doesnt wait for the ending spell particle to play before switching to the next unit (you switch while it is playing)
+ Lots of new sound effects and music
+ Sounds fades out between screen changes
+ Added the Mite unit, pesky little goblin like creatures that come in hordes and provide a good excuse to test out those early weapons
+ Units with bows also have quivers
+ Added the trigger Fear ability (monsters with it hit enemies with fear before combat)
+ Added the trigger Titan’s Breath ability (monsters with it hit enemies with fear before combat)
+ Added Precision II and Precision III abilities (to support future bow changes)
+ Added the Darkling Archer lair
+ Added the Darkling Warlock lair
+ Added the Banished Ogre lair
+ Added the Wilding Archer lair
+ Added the Wilding Hermit lair
+ Added a trade buttong to the equipment window
+ Removed the Amulet of the Eagle
+ Added the Amulet of Flames (craftable, +3 fire attack)
+ Added the Amulet of Frost (craftable, +3 cold attack)
+ Added the Scar Stone (+1 fire damage, craftable, Quendar only)
+ Added the Summoner sovereign background, summoned units start at a higher level and that sovereign gets access to the Summon Shadow Warg spell (Ceresa and Procipinee are summoners)
+ Added the Incineration Staff, Ice Staff, Hailstoen Staff and Hellfire Staff, they have ranged fire and cold attacks and are craftable
+ Added the Warlock sovereign background (+50% spell damage, Magnar is a warlock)
+ Added the Boar Spear as a mid game weapon between the spear and the pike
Bugs:
+ Blizzard, Blight and Escape scrolls no longer consume mana
+ Fixed a crash when saving games
+ Double clicking an improvement in the build list will auto place
+ Fixed issues keeping some sound effects form being played
+ Fixed bug that caused list box selections to not deselect
+ Fixed the Experienced and Veteran abilities to correctly give the free level
+ Fixed all quests that give out champions (so they are correctly champions)
+ Fixed a bug that destroyed cities when sovereigns were killed in battle
+ Fixed an issue that caused cities to dissapear
+ Fixed an issue allowing the Air Elemental Scroll to be used multiple times
+ Letters are no longer consumable
+ Monster recruits wont show up in the design window anymore
+ Fixed an issue keeping scrolls from working on the strategic map
+ Fixed an item keeping strategic spells form using the random modifier ability (for Destiny's gift)
+ All the tiles in your ZoC are now visible
+ Fixed an issue causing the Touch of Entropy spell to trigger twice
+ Pressing D with a unit selected wont bring up the old unit lorebook anymore
+ City defenders arent multiplied when they defend a city
+ Added the ability for spells to permanently kill champions (for steal spirit and infernal contract)
+ Fixed an issue that allowed tactical summons to sometimes survive after the battle
+ Fixed crashes
+ Fixed a significant memory leak in the sound system
+ Fixed an issue with combat rating (where the leader had the groups combat rating instead of his own)
+ Unit won through quests can now have their level specified (so they arent all level 1)
+ Fixed an issue causing multi-tile creatures to be hit multiple times by spells with a radius
+ Fixed bug where if you only have one item in your inventory, and it’s equipped, that selling it didn’t clear the selection area, which let you re-equip the item, and then resell it.
+ Fixed an issues causing the speak to button to be disabled on the foreign relations window
+ Fixed an issue keeping path of governor abilities from showing up
+ Bows correctly make bow noises
+ Fixed quests that give champions
+ King of the Wastes tech now correctly upgrades future monsters
Balance:
+ Late game tech costs reduced dramatically
+ Experienced earned from battle is split among the winning units
+ All craftable magical accessories now have a crystal cost
+ More injuries added (Afraid of Dying, Broken Leg, Hallucinations, Cracked Skull, Concussion and Rotting Wound)
+ Missing Ear injury now gives -10% to dodge
+ Gangrene Hand injury now gives -15% to strength
+ Flesh Wound injury now gives -10% to hit points
+ Chipped Tooth injury now gives a penalty to poison resistance
+ Broken Nose injury now gives -10% to Constitution
+ Blind in One Eye injury now gives -25% to Accuracy
+ Amnesia now gives -25% to earned xp (thanks to Heavenfall for feedback on this and many of the above)
+ Units cant walk on Mountainside
+ More (low level) monsters around starting locations
+ Reduced the cost of upgrading trained units to have better equipment.
+ Health regenerated reduced by 75% when the unit is immobilized
+ Caravan respawn time increased from 3 to 5
+ When a champion dies in battle and he recieves an injury his hit points are healed back to 25% full (to keep cascading deaths from happening)
+ Mid to late game improvement cost increased
+ You need the Path of the Mage to be able to cast Counterspell
+ Chaos and Pandemonium have no positive effects, just different negative effects of different types
+ Reduced the cost of pioneers
+ Fireball damage reduced from 6 (+3 per fire shard) to 4 (+4 per fire shard) and it takes and additonal action to cast
+ Contagion damage increased from 3 (+1 per death shard) to 3 (+3 per death shard) and it takes an additional action to cast
+ Dirge of Ceresa mana cost increased form 24 to 36, it is resistable and the duration damage increased form 3 (+1 per death shard) to 3 (+3 per death shard)
+ Legacy of Serrane faction ability gives +3 diplo each time a caravan reaches its destination
+ Legacy of Serrane faction ability unlocks the Aura of Commerce spell
+ Ignys are weakened but can now breath fire
+ Quests give much better stuff
+ You can upgrade the armor and weapons on most of the trained units
+ Catapults gain 30 Pierce defense and are larger in tactical
+ Base init is doubled (so we can be more granular with bonuses and penalties)
+ Weapons rebalanced at the new init levels
+ Alliance treaties have a 99 season duration
+ Non-aggression treaty duration increased from 33 to 50
+ Chaos and Pandemonium dont have positive effects anymore
+ Impulsive ability requires level 3
+ High level lairs reduced form 10 to 8 levels away from starting points (they werent able to be placed on some maps)
+ Wolf lairs cant be placed on deserts
+ Spider Venom saces are now accessories that you can equip to add poison damage to your attacks
+ A unit can only have 4 accessories equipped at one time
+ Movement increased on a bunch of monster (most go to a base of 3, anything with 4 legs generally has 4)
+ XP is divided by the amount of champions in your army. If you get 500 xp with an army with 1 champion all untis in that army get 500 xp. If you had 2 champions in that army all the units in that army get 250 xp).
+ Bandit Archer camps can spawn bandits
+ Bear lairs have loot
+ Butcherman lairs can spawn butchermen
+ Crag Spawn lairs can spawn crag spawn
+ Darkling Rider lairs can spawn darklings
+ Death Demon lairs can spawn assassin demons
+ Great Wolf lairs can spawn wolves
+ Ravenous Harridan lairs can spawn black widows
+ Rock Spider lairs can produce rock spiderlings
+ Stalker lairs can spawn stalkers
+ Wilding Rider lairs can spawn wildings
+ Capturing a city halves the population (instead of reducing it to 0)
+ Razing a city makes its zoc barren so a new city cant be founded there
+ You cant trade champions anymore
+ Champions choose their path at 4th level (not 2nd)
+ Reduced the metal cost of higher level weapons
+ Traits and items that increase movement are more rare
+ Amulet of Warding train time and defensive bonus reduced
+ Cloak of Shadows no longer gives a defensive bonus
+ Cloak of the Night no longer gives a defensive bonus
+ Darkling Cloak no longer gives a defensive bonus
+ Longstrider boots aren’t craftable anymore
+ Poison Vial is cheaper
+ Ring of Embers now correctly gives fire resistance
+ Ring of Storms now correctly gives cold resistance
+ Reduced Affinity to -10% the mana cost for tactical spells (from -25%)
+ Gamblers strike now has a 50% chance of doing double damage and a 50% chance to miss
+ Reduced the mana cost reduction from the archmage robes, mage robes and adept robes
+ Mantle of Oceans reduces tactical spell cost by 40% instead of 50%
+ Fireball does 4 (+4 per fire shard damage) instead of 6 + 3
+ Fireballs casting time increased from 2 to 3
+ Added a particle effect to growth and giant form
+ Monster player has plenty of mana to work with, be afraid
+ Removed the Bonding Ceremony tech (darkling and wilding camps require adminstration)
+ Removed the Mercenaties tech (mercenary camps require cooperation)
+ Path of the Assassin gives +3 dex, +3 to crits, and +50% to crit damage instead of +6 to dex and +2 strength
+ Path of the Defender gives +3 strength and +3 constitution instead of +6 strength and +2 constitution
+ Path of the Mage gives +3 int instead of +6 int
+ Path of the Warrior gives +3 str and +3 dex instead of +6 str and +2 dex
+ Diplomat gives +30% to trade value instead of +20%
+ Shards give 3 mana instead of 2
+ Min city level placed on most improvements
+ Dragon hide cloak is craftable
+ Ice Warg cloak is craftable
+ Wing of Embers and Ring of the Glacier moved from enchantments to channeling
+ Lightning Hammer is now craftable
+ Burning Axe is now craftable
+ Ice Spear is now craftable
+ Chain chest and greaves give -1 init
+ Plate boots, helm, greaves, chest and gauntlets give -1 init
+ Reduced the defense on leathur cirass from 3 to 2
+ Reduced the defense on leather greaves from 2 to 1
+ Reduced the cost of armor you can buy in stores
+ Tech costs dramatically reduced
+ Reduced the powerful empire ability to +2 str and +2 con (instead of +3 for both)
+ Reduced Rage to +3 str and dex when under 50% hit points (instead of +5)
+ Reduced the Strength ability to +2 str instead of +3
Cosmetic:
+ Quest location icons turn silver if the quest has been started (indicating there is nothing left to do at that spot)
+ Added notes to the tooltip for improvements (for things like being world or faction limited)
+ Fixed so many typos
+ When the monster is killed remaining lair switch to the treasure icon to show that they can be claimed
+ Tooltip for limited units shows how many the player has available
+ Monster dropped loot (pelts, webs, teeth, etc) no longer have a popup
+ We only show 3 units in a group if they are in an army on the main map (so you dont get those stuffed tiles that look like a wandering mosh pit)
+ New terrain graphics
+ New glow on mana shards
AI:
+ Monsters slightly less aggressive
+ Monster wander radius increased when in player territory
+ AI will now surrender late game rather than dragging things out
+ AI armies more aggressive
+ Fixed AI bug where armies with pioneers would not attack no matter what sometimes
+ AI more willing to attack and lose to wear player down if they have sufficient military might
+ Fixed AI bug where sovereign would get stuck on a quest
+ Increased odds of the AI talking smack talk to player about destroying stuff
+ Fixed bug where AI would go into defend mode rather than attack in tactical
+ AI Empires take umbridge if you attack an empire (-3 to relations)
+ Kingdoms get upset if you attack someone early game (-3 to relations)
+ Kingdoms take offense if you attack a kingdom (-3 to relations)
+ Kingdoms get really made if you are a kingdom and attack another kingdom (-3 to relations)
+ AI will improve relations if you have trade routes with it
+ AI manages its tax rate more effectively via an internal credit score system
+ AI trash talks player slightly more
+ AI places a lower priority on shopping for equipment based on how much money it has
+ Fixed AI bug where units would stick around at a rally point too long
+ Fixed AI bug where sovereigns and champions would head back to rally points even if they were powerful
+ Fixed AI bug that prevented the AI from going on quests as often as it should have
+ Fixed AI bug where champions wouldn't attack unless they had overwhelming superiority
+ AI more aggressive about founding new cities further away
+ AI more aggressive about constructing outposts
+ AI uses AI traits to determine what units it will train
+ AI evaluates area threats based on distance and how fast threats can move
+ AI is biased to train units over building improvements during war time depending on what traits it has
+ Fixed AI bug where cities wouldn't train pioneers if they were at war if they didn't have the right AI trait
+ Fixed AI bug where it didn't value magical weaponry correctly (thus only mundane units)
+ Fixed AI bug where it was not valuing combat speed correctly
+ AI less concerned about relative military power in diplomacy until later in the game
+ AI makes more use of AI traits when determining diplomatic relations
+ AI will now cast more offensive strategic spells
+ AI can use Curse City type spells
+ AI can and will cast the Spell of Making if it can
+ AI will try to inform players when it has cast a curse on the player OR cast a very powerful spell
+ AI will interact with players more generally
+ Fixed AI bug where it would ignore cities it knows about simply because they're far away
+ AI is less likely to surrender
+ Unstable, Isolationists and War Monger AI personalities will tend to raze cities they didn't found when conquered
+ Fixed tactical AI bug where it would appear to move and then attack a player which is illegal
+ Fixed tactical AI bug where if units were low on mana they would sometimes skip their move even if they had a mundane attack
+ Increased tactical AI evaluation of ranged offensive spells
+ Increased the target value of ranged units (made AI more likely to go after them)
+ Units that aren't particularly powerful are more likely to stand back and let others fight for them first in tactical battles
+ AI better handles dealing with units with particular types of magic resistances.
+ Changed tactical map choosing algorithm to now look at the number of units going into the map (bigger maps for bigger battles)
It's not a problem later in the game, I dont think. Just early on when your income is in the single digits, you are hungry for infrastructure, and production queues are precious.
Unfortunately, that's exactly the time you need to recruit as many champs as possible, to keep them from being claimed, and so that they have the time and available XP to develop. Any champion you acquire or that starts developing past the halfway point in the game is icing, but generally plays no critical role.
I hear what you all are saying but I've had a blast this first game.
Loaded up a normal game to show my daugher the ropes, playing as Porpoiseinippity, and was like holy crap hardly any xp from kills. But then I figured out she can summon that Shadow Warg, oh man, hella fun. Put next to a Wildlands, friggin 5 man groups of Ogres chasing my butt all over the place, destroying my Outposts and resources. Tactical combat is light years beyond where it was - Darkling Shaman cursing and blinding all my units. I'm almost as excited about this build as I was checking out the first build of FE (comparing FE to EWOM). I even had to legitimately use an Escape scroll to save my butt.
And whatever you guys did to correct crashing, haven't had a single one yet. These seems so much more stable for me than the last build.
I'm really excited about this build. And I haven't made it out of early game yet to test the strategic AI. Kudos to Derek, Brad, & crew, wish I was off work tomorrow to check out the next iteration!
I am noticing the same shift some people are talking about, but it is compensated for me by the total frakking war strategy the AI has taken on. I am fighting a war on every front. I will post more about it later, but what i really like is how smart the AI is about attacking from new direction and surprising my defenders. Kudos on you guys for bringing the S back to this TBS. You could release what I am experiencing tomorrow and beat most of the TBS games I play.
Of course there is more work to be done. You have to satisfy more than just me.
what difficulty level are you testing at?
@Sean3w: I do like the new tactical combat maps. Some interesting obstructions out in the open terrain, as well as some forests and whatnot in several city fights. I'm curious what difficulty you are playing on as well. I started my first game on normal since Mr Frog was ranting about how hard it was, and uhhh they just got steamrolled.
@Bingjack: given that experience is split between champions there really isn't a rush to claim all of them around the map. Personally I think you are better off with the minimum number capable of defeating the enemies around the area, and just waiting to pick up the better ones with higher level techs.
Not too sure about the razing, or about the four accessory limit. I'll see how they play out.
I am on Challenging world and factions, Medium Map, Balanced Terrain, All default sliders, 8 factions, 2 juiced up to Hard difficulty. Writing this I just realized that the reason Lord Relias spawned next to me is likely due to having too many factions on Medium. It should really be noted somewhere that this can cause claimjumping. I am finding some real challenge in the AI factions and I haven't even found the Hard guys yet. Challenging can turn into total war very quickly. You have to time your declarations and research some diplomacy techs to survive. I posted a play by play.
P.S. I heard what Frogboy said about the AI, but you have to remember that we are much better at it than he is.
I disagree here. Early game champs that you buy for a pittance and that can level up/equip as you see fit while there are still low level fights to level up on, are far more valuable than costly later game champs. Unlockable champs are expensive because they come with cheap mounts, abilities you wouldn't have chosen, and nicer (but not crucial) equipment. It's the XP level and choice of abilities that is the main value here, and you have the most control over that by getting them early. Obviously, the more you have, the faster you can scout/expand in different directions, assuming your way isnt blocked. I dont need every champ on the map, but the 2-4 Champs I pick up in the early stages are the ones that will win (or lose) the game for me.
I rarely pick up any champs after about a third of the way through the game. They are underpowered and will take too long to level to make any real difference by that point, especially now that they are expected to solo, and I cant attach them to another hero to earn XP. Now, give them 5-10 player defined level-ups available at purchase, and that would be a different story. Then they would be well worth the expense, and cut down on how much you'd have to babysit them before they could be come a functioning part of your military. Perhaps that will also change if other Champion types eventually become half as useful as an optimized battle mage, or the godly Path of the Warrior.
Otherwise the emphasis after early game is now on leveling up trained units, not Champions. That would be different if armies couldn't operate without Champions to lead them like in some games, but manufactured units can still operate autonomously in a pinch.
This thinking may be a holdover from .77 where you could sweep a large map effortlessly with 2-3 properly configured Champions, but I have yet to be convinced that is still not the case.
Plus, correct me if Im wrong here, but you are competing with the AI for them, are you not? Those are resources that instead go to your opponents. Those early game Champs are eventually going to be demigods. They can either be my demigods, or the AI's.
Also, in case I didn't make this clear when I mentioned it previously, Im not complaining about the build, which sports AI and a challenge level I'm very enthusiastic about, and making me very optimistic for the game. Just reporting on some issues I experienced that can potentially cause your game to grind to a halt in an early stage when that shouldn't ever happen.
Why not distribute XP based on level?
Tally up all XP levels in an army.
The level 12 champ gets 12 shares, the level 2 spearman gets 2.
Since champions can level up far higher than simple footmen, their share of the "loot" keeps increasing, too.
If you twink your new level 1 champ with (relatively) high level bowmen and cavalry, the level one has to work for it...
Alternatively, add +2 or +3 to the number of shares of every champion, generating extra XP in every battle.That makes sure the champions can gain useful amounts of XP even when accompanied by regular troops.Also, they always gain a proportionally higher amount than equal-level regulars because of their extra shares.
That might inhibit power leveling of newb Champs, but doesn't really solve the early game issue. There's no practical difference between a 50% split and a split by level when grouping low level champs around the same level. The net effect is that they still level too slowly from halved XP gain to be competitive, and standing armies are too costly or fragile at that point to allow them to operate autonomously.
Encouraging high level champs to split up and operate on their own was never a real problem, because they can generally solo any encounter, outside of unique monsters. You'd generally want to split them to cover more ground and would only group them for the purpose of levelling a mid game champion pick up, if you bother with that sort of thing.
MMOs deal with this issue all the time. Perhaps some MMO -like mechanism whereby the XP split doesn't kick in until one of the members is past a certain level threshold, or outside of a range of level disparity. Perhaps levels 1-5 or 1-10 are considered "apprenticeship" levels, and exempt from the grouping penalty, but afterwards are expected to be field commanders.
I'd say Champions within levels 1-5 should be exempt. (6-10 though is too high, 1-5 only I think)
After playing a bit of .86, I can already tell getting the right amount of XP is making a huge difference. It's not nearly so desperate as before, when you were in mortal battles for 1 and 2 xp at level 1-2. I feel much better now.
Glad to hear it!
I may not fully believe it until I see it for myself, but I like what I am hearing.
As a matter of fact, the XP gain is reasonable enough now, I don't think it's actually crazy to take the xp penalty and team up (at least in doubles) in order to survive the early game. Getting levels at the start with low XP reqs is still perfectly doable, and by the time the XP split really starts to hurt and they need to split up to keep advancing at a good clip, your champs should have a few levels under their belt, and your infrastructure should be ready to train a few decent units. It works out pretty well.
I'm actually fairly pleased. It's such an odd sensation.
[edit] And now I can relax and appreciate all the other good stuff in .85/6 . Enemy Sovereigns that intelligently buff their troops against me, army management panels that let me scroll between my units, trade with, and equip them all from the same panel without having to close it and reselct something else, and lots of other great stuff.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
